It just works: Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition Linux Ultrabook review

I've been terribly curious about the Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition since we first covered it back in November. This is a different beast from the flippy-touchscreen-equipped XPS 12—this Ultrabook contains zero touchscreens. However, it comes preloaded with Ubuntu Linux, and Dell has spent a substantial amount of time and effort in ensuring that it works—and works well.

In an effort originally known as Project Sputnik, Dell dedicated resources into doing Linux on an Ultrabook "right"—writing code where necessary (and contributing that code back upstream like a good FOSS citizen) and paying attention to the entire user experience rather than merely working on components in a vacuum. The result is a perfectly functional Ultrabook with a few extra tools—that "Developer Edition" moniker isn't just for show, and Dell has added some devops spices into the mix with this laptop that should quicken any developer's heartbeat.

Damning Linux with praise

Linux is not yet "ready for the desktop," and I'm doubtful it will ever be—at least not in the sense that an average person could use it full-time without any assistance. I've struggled before with using Linux as my full-time operating environment both at work and at home. I did it for years at work, but it was never quite as easy as I wanted it to be—on an older Dell laptop, keeping dual monitor support working correctly across updates required endless fiddling with xorg.conf, and whether or not it was Nvidia's fault was totally irrelevant to swearing, cursing Past Lee, trying desperately to get his monitors to display images so he could make his 10am conference call without having to resort to running the meeting on the small laptop screen.

The remarkable thing about the XPS 13 Developer Edition is that it's so unremarkable—it has Ubuntu 12.04 LTS installed out of the box, and it simply works. The trackpad does two-finger scrolling (with inertia!) without having to add some random crazy guy's PPA and install extra packages. It picked up my Wi-Fi network and joined it without requiring me to do anything other than supply the passkey. It just worked.

It's an impressive achievement, and it's also a sad comment on the overall viability of Linux as a consumer-facing operating system for normal people. I don't think anyone is arguing that Linux hasn't earned its place in the data center—it most certainly has—but there's no way I'd feel comfy installing even newbie-friendly Ubuntu or Mint on my parents' computers. The XPS 13 DE shows the level of functionality and polish possible with extra effort, and that effort and polish together means this kind of Linux integration is something we won't see very often outside of boutique OEMs.

Diving in

The XPS 13 comes in a pretty black box. Packed in along with the computer is a warranty card, quick-start guide, and a small power brick and cable. There are also some cool "Project Sputnik" stickers, which is great because stickers are awesome.

The Developer Edition XPS 13 is externally identical to the regular one available via Dell's website. The clamshell lid is aluminum, and the laptop's bottom surface is coated in soft checkerboard patterned plastic. The palm rests and area around the keyboard are also plastic, though they feel almost rubberized—it's not at all unpleasant.

Enlarge/ Looking at the dark face of the XPS 13 Developer Edition. Black is the predominant color, drawing attention to the screen when on and de-emphasizing the rest, which is good. The lack of crapware stickers is most, most welcome.

Lee Hutchinson

The left side of the laptop hosts the socket for the power adapter (which glows white when plugged in), a USB 3.0 port, and a headphone jack. The right side holds another USB 3.0 port, a mini DisplayPort for an external monitor, and, thoughtfully, a light-up meter to report on the health of the 47 watt-hour battery.

Enlarge/ Oblique angle on the XPS 13, showing the textured bottom and vents, along with a DisplayPort plug, one USB 3.0 port, and the battery meter button and display.

Lee Hutchinson

The trackpad isn't glass, but rather more rubberized plastic. The entire surface depresses when clicked, but there is a small indentation at the bottom to demarcate the left and right buttons.

The keyboard is unfortunately spongy, far more than I found comfortable. Key travel is short, but the keys don't bottom out with anything approaching authority, and the keypress effort is far too light for me. On the positive side, though, the chiclet-style island keys are backlit. I've grown so used to using a backlit keyboard that I'd now consider it a requirement for any laptop or Ultrabook (it's just very handy on the occasions that I need to look at the keyboard—like when typing a complex password).

Enlarge/ XPS 13 keyboard detail. I found the keys to be unfortunately spongy.

Lee Hutchinson

The screen is glossy, which I like, a choice that will no doubt elicit an immediate "I HATE THIS AND WANT TO THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW" response for a lot of people. Along the top edge of the bezel is the integrated 720p camera flanked by a pair of microphones. The aluminum of the clamshell's top is visible peeking around the edge of the screen, providing an outline of all the black plastic and glass.

The entire visual effect of looking at the opened XPS 13 is very pleasing, and the black screen border coupled with the matte black keyboard and trackpad and palm rests creates a simple, monochromatic, clutter-free face that encourages engagement. I was especially happy to see that the palm rests were not gunked up with the typical annoying explosion of multicolored stickers—with the exception of a white-on-black Intel Core i7 sticker (which actually looks quite nice!)—so there's nothing to visually distract you from working.

My biggest complaint with the XPS 13 is that its lid isn't quite sprung and balanced for one-handed opening. You can hook the edge of a finger under the edge of the closed bezel and lift, but the whole computer comes with your finger, unfortunately; I had to do a bit of rocking or jiggling to make the bottom drop away from the lid. It's a little thing, but it's definitely an area where a little more engineering effort could have been spent.

Enlarge/ Beneath the XPS badge on the bottom of the Ultrabook is the service tag, serial number, and a neat little Ubuntu sticker.

Lee Hutchinson

Enlarge/ Bottom of the XPS 13 with plastic cover removed. It's pretty tight in there, and you're not going to be replacing very much. The RAM is soldered to the motherboard.

Lee Hutchinson

Making with the Linux

If you've installed Ubuntu before, then you already know what the setup procedure for the XPS 13 DE looks like. The SSD-equipped laptop took about 10 seconds to boot the very first time and displayed a friendly Ubuntu intro movie—with sound. Is it bad if I say that I was impressed that sound worked right out of the box?

After that, the process was standard Ubuntu. I was prompted for my preferred language, then I had to agree to the EULA, and then I was presented with the Wi-Fi network picker. The trackpad—another often-broken peripheral under Linux—worked perfectly throughout setup and even had two-finger inertial scrolling enabled by default. The Wi-Fi picker found my WLAN and accepted my password, and I zipped through the rest of the setup.

One notable difference between the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS preinstalled on the XPS 13 DE and the current version of Ubuntu is that 12.04 doesn't give the user the option during setup to enable full-disk encryption since this wasn't added to the installer until 12.10. You can encrypt your home directory during setup, but not the entire disk—at least not without abandoning the guided setup process and doing it yourself.

After clicking through the prompts, I arrived at a familiar-looking blank Unity desktop.

* 2 finger scroll has been around for the last 2 years (fedora and ubuntu)* xorg conf has been deprecated for even longer and at least in the latest fedora it even properly does not shut down laptop if lid is closed with external monitor attached* the software managers have gotten only better

and realistically - 99% of laptop use case is: browser, occasional spreadsheet/document and listening to music (rhythmbox/banshee or flash in the page)

as a developer i add editing code and opening terminal windows to the list, but really, linux has reached the level of "good enough" for quite a bunch of home users without any proficiency in computers. the only struggle being the initial install - which means you just need to have it preloaded or somebody lends you 2 hours of his to get everything ready for you.

once i explained to the person how "installing new programs" works (run "install software", find what you need by name and install) the process from there is comparable to android appstore - they just sometimes ask "is there an app to do X in linux?" and if there is i can point them to it.

The XPS 13 is actually a pretty nice looking machine IMO and there build quality has improved considerably. The T430 range is no beauty, they cost more, and they all lack of a 1080p screen means I'd have the Dell every time.

It's rather unfair to say "Linux isn't ready for the desktop/laptop." It's that people buy B-list hardware and expect it to work for free. In a race to the bottom, manufacturers can't help themselves using crappy/buggy chipsets and misconfigured BIOSes. Just look at all the stories recently about HP and IBM and everyone else trying to re-focus their attention away from the commodity market because it's caving in. The companies that continue to be successful -- Lenovo and Apple --- produce excellent, well-built hardware with top-end parts, good firmware, and solid cases.

If you buy a good machine --- a thinkpad, say --- Linux install is generally 5-clicks-and-done. Then it "just works". Of course, no one complains about installing Windows or MacOS because it comes preinstalled automatically.

I'm very glad Dell is putting in a serious effort here. I hope they join the ranks of Lenovo and Apple to contribute some competition to the "well-built" market segment.

"I don't think anyone is arguing that Linux hasn't earned its place in the data center—it most certainly has—but there's no way I'd feel comfy installing even newbie-friendly Ubuntu or Mint on my parents' computers."

Pesky Linux fanboy alert here, but Linux, especially the very Windows 95-like distros, are very newbie friendly, and arguably less alienating to novices stuck in old habits than, say, Windows 8. I managed to get my girlfriend to use Mint happily until Windows only specialist software (Trados) forced her to switch back, and my parents had no problem adapting to Ubuntu, and certainly don't miss having to deal with the mysterious ever-increasing sluggishness of Windows Vista.

It all comes down to if the hardware plays well with your chosen Linux distro. If it doesn't, you'll need some under-the-hood skills.

by looking on the photos of the laptop there is just one complaint - if it is developer friendly, why oh why did they removed the home/end/pgup/pgndn buttons to be now pressed together with the function button - writing code requires lots of editing and those 4 are very useful.

I've got one and I'm very happy with it. The screen, albeit glossy, is much less reflective than my macbook screen. Apparently they found some sort of decent middle of the road here.The bottom isn't "chess-patterned plastic", but carbon fibre according to the specs. And I'm quite happy with Unity actually; my expectations were pretty low but I got used to it quickly (I normally use good ol' WindowMaker) so I finally decided to be lazy and keep it as is instead of installing it with Slackware or Debian as I originally planned.

My colleague bought the same machine with Windows 8 instead. Well, I won't make any harsh comments, but... Linux is indisputably readier for desktop than Windows 8

Actual Linux support by the OEM, but other then that I admit, no reason, has Thinkpad usually work pretty well under Linux, has they then to get hardware certification from SUSE and Red Hat, on at least one model each series.

Actually with my T520 under Linux got better out of the box driver support then under a basic windows 7 pro install (no trouble with Lenovo factory install but don't want to deal with the bloatware), got to install like 15-20 driver if want do a fully manual installation, those include all the network interface, has none is recognized. But easiest way is just install the ethernet driver and the Lenovo update software, if your not in a secure (damn thing leave an open port, at least last version I used) or restricted update environment.

Distros like Ubuntu and mint have gone a long way in making user friendly desktops. The only issue has always been the hardware, like many people have pointed out. The combination of both the hardware, with support directly for Linux, and a user friendly desktop from Ubuntu there shouldn't be any problems with new users to adopt Linux using dells product.

On a side note, stating that Linux is not ready for the desktop shows that the author has not done their research and using old knowledge to help them through writing this article. The fact of the matter is that Linux has come leaps and bounds, and there has been a concentrated attention on usability and refining the overall feel. The only concern that I have with Linux, especially for me, is Nvidia and their dodgy drivers. If I can break away from Nvidia I would be a happier person.

Steam coming to Linux changed this for me. I used to dual-boot, referring to Windows as "the 100 buck bit of software that turns my 1000 buck PC into a 300 buck console..."

That Windows partition is probably about three months out of date on patches now. I've not felt the need to boot into Windows at all - I have 33 games installed in my Steam library, and that keeps me busy enough. Sure, I'll probably miss some AAA titles - but I never played most of those anyway. My current gaming time is taken up by Hat Fortress 2, FTL and a little Solar 2.

If you want AAA titles, I'd agree we're not there yet. If you just want to play games, then come on in - the water's fine!

Steam coming to Linux changed this for me. I used to dual-boot, referring to Windows as "the 100 buck bit of software that turns my 1000 buck PC into a 300 buck console..."

That Windows partition is probably about three months out of date on patches now. I've not felt the need to boot into Windows at all - I have 33 games installed in my Steam library, and that keeps me busy enough. Sure, I'll probably miss some AAA titles - but I never played most of those anyway. My current gaming time is taken up by Hat Fortress 2, FTL and a little Solar 2.

If you want AAA titles, I'd agree we're not there yet. If you just want to play games, then come on in - the water's fine!

Good points, I was thinking of older games I have on the shelf. I'm mainly Xbox gaming when I have time.

As a dev I would love to see the return of 4:3 screens. The more code you can see the better.

I installed Ubuntu 12.04 for both my 78 year old dad and 74 year old mom. Neither one has had the slightest bit of trouble. It does everything they need. They both found Ubuntu easier to use than Windows XP/7.

Terminology question: what is a "kernel PPA"? Googling just yielded links to other PPA's, which wasn't helpful I'm guessing it's some kind of patchset?

Personal Package Archive. It's a privately-maintained package archive that might hold newer versions of a given program than are available from the official distribution, or programs that aren't otherwise available yet, or are configured a specific way.

A kernel PPA will have a specially-configured version of the Linux kernel, which is the underlying guts of the operating system.

Lee Hutchinson seems surprised that Linux just worked. I am not sure why. Linux will work on most pieces of hardware over a certain age - that age being the amount of time it takes to reverse engineer all the device drivers for the new hardware and get the resulting drivers into the distro you are using.

So yes, this was different in one way - Linux just worked on a brand new piece of hardware. But even that should not be so surprising. The reason it worked is the same reason why Windows just works on new hardware. Someone (Dell in this case), took the time to write the device drivers for it before the hardware was released, and included them in the box. So no, you didn't have to go to some PPA repository to find the driver - it was right in the box. Just like it would be for Windows.

I guess that now means you will now have one more experience in common with Windows. If you ever have to reformat the disk and don't have access to the installation media, you are going to have to find these drivers on manufacturers web site. Fortunately Dell is very good in that way. Or at least they are for Windows drivers. I presume they will provide a similar service for Linux.

Actually no, that's probably wrong. Because by the time you need a new HDD, the drivers will already be in the next release of Ubuntu. So maybe Dell XPS 13 Developer edition users will be spared the joyfull experience of reinstalling Windows from media, then spending a happy hour of so downloading all the drivers from Dell and installing them, and then spending a day of rebooting as Windows downloads every patch that been released and installing it from Windows update. Gawd, how I love that particular chore.

I have been running Ubuntu as my main home operating system for 7+ years.I have not really seen all the problems you've described, so I feel it's a bit misleading to the reader on how bad Linux is. I will admit when there is a problem, it is often difficult to solve and involves a command line and searching for missing steps. Granted I'm usually working with older hardware from Dell or HP.

I really like that Dell is actually trying to make Ubuntu an option for purchase, but my experience with Dell's Ubuntu offerings has not been good. My mini 9 was stuck on an old custom Ubuntu that was not optimized to the device, at a time when Ubuntu offered the still awesome and unrivaled netbook remix.

I guess I'm not your typical home user or Linux user(I actually like Unity) but I thought I'd put in my 2 cents.

Around $1500 and no discreet GPU? I know Intel have significantly improved the performance of their embedded graphics chips but not to include an M series Nvidia GPU for that price point is baffling to say the least.

(EDIT: not a troll -> no discrete GPU for a 1.5k machine, a linux distro that is more and more getting away from what linux stands for, soldered RAM (we are in 2013 FFS and not everybody can pull an 'Apple'), no engineering thoughts about what a dev really does on a machine (cf. the comment above regarding the function key) ... etc ... etc ... Nice marketing play from Dell but just a play nonetheless.)

The only two issues I've had with Ubuntu over the last few years are 1) track pad drivers and 2) battery use/sleep mode. Other than those, dual screens, sound, wireless have just worked for awhile. So it sounds like dell has brought the laptop experience up to speed with what it has been on the desktop for awhile.

I know there have already been a bunch of "my parents use Linux" posts, but I thought I'd add another, in case there's someone who's /almost/ convinced.

My mother had a laptop struggling under XP. It would take an eternity to boot, and there was lag even when typing. I installed Ubuntu 12.04 for her, and she loves it. She uses the browser, LibreOffice and one of those photo-viewing apps. Zero problems.

My friend's mother has been on Ubuntu for ages, too. She's happy and won't even look at a Windows machine, now.

I myself have only been using Ubuntu on my laptop for a year. I had zero hardware problems with installing 12.04 on my cheap, plastic-hinged, bendy Sony Vaio. I use a dual-screen setup, too.

Maybe the author should give Linux a try again. The OS (especially Ubuntu) has come a long way, in terms of drivers and usability. I had tried Linux on a cheap laptop around 6 years ago and given up. Totally different now.

Hearing your complains about Linux not being ready and especially reading your statements that you did not expected sound to work out of the box, I have started to suspect, that you run 20y old hardware.

Or some vintage&specialized hardware.

Come one. Get commodity hardware from any shop around the corner, than install up to date Ubuntu on it...

Dell did great job, but its not that hard. I have asus notebook, with no drivers from asus for Linux, and it still work out of them box without any problems (and Ubu do install gpu drivers, not like find-it-yourself by Win7).

The XPS 13 is actually a pretty nice looking machine IMO and there build quality has improved considerably. The T430 range is no beauty, they cost more, and they all lack of a 1080p screen means I'd have the Dell every time.

T430 doesn't cost more...I got mine for $800 and spent an extra $50 to install 8GB more of RAM. I now have 12GB more than is possible in the Dell and could upgrade to 16GB. The 1600x900 screen isn't terrible either and it has better battery life and the ability to have 3 SSD/HDD installed. It's heavier true, and some consider it ugly( I don't), but it's more powerful and I have a discrete GPU if I need it ever too. Ubuntu 12.04 runs like a champ. Dual screens works fine, so does two-finger scrolling once you turn it on in the options. Only thing that's poorly supported is the optimus graphics switching but that's every laptop with optimus's problem.

certainly don't miss having to deal with the mysterious ever-increasing sluggishness of Windows Vista.

I am pretty sure the mysterious ever-increasing sluggishness is general to all version of windows, it just that with Vista it tend to be the worse offender for at the time it was sold the OEM hardware was mostly inappropriate for it.

I know you were sarcastic in not expecting the sound to work out of the box. But I didn't realise that would be a Linux issue in general.

I've installed Linux on 20+ computers over the last 10+ years, using Knoppix, Fedora and lately Ubuntu, and sound has always worked out of the box. The only hardware I've ever had to install myself was Nvidia 3D in Fedora.

This looks like a decent enough machine,but to be honest I'd take the ASUS UX32VD over it - it's essentially the same hardware with the added benefit of a discrete GPU for more graphically intensive tasks + upgradeable RAM (and yes,you can swap out the HDD for a SSD on it too) for the same price.

I take issue with your "One-handed opening leads to whole laptop lifting up instead of smoothly opening" item. I have this same problem with the MacBook Air I use at work. I can't open it one-handed, the whole thing just comes off the table. I can't think of any Ultrabook-class system I've ever not had this problem with and although it is a real problem you failed the mention that the MacBook Air is just as bad.

I'm also not a big Unity fan, I personally prefer Gnome 2.0, but even that isn't fantastic. It really seems like the new shells are all thrown together by programmers and graphic designers without thinking about usability. They're all designed to be pretty and have features. People just want a simple and fast way to get at what they want, not constant unneeded changes in interface.

From the "mom" point of view, Ubuntu is way less confusing than Windows. It's in fact a perfect use case, imho.

All of the updates coming from one place is a /great/ feature. My mother was always confused by separate updaters for the various programs she had installed (flash, acrobat, java, etc).

How is she supposed to know the difference between dialog boxes where she should click "yes" (followed sometimes by an app-specific update wizard), and the security risks where she should definitely click "no"?

Note: I'm not an Ubuntu fanboy. It just happens to be the only distro I've ever used.

This is very, very interesting to me. I usually avoid Dell like the plague, but this looks like a very nice, very competitively priced high-end machine.

I'm typing this on a ThinkPad X201s. In my opinion, once configured, it is the finest Linux laptop available. That said, if I was going to replace it tomorrow, I would likely buy this Dell.

I use Linux everywhere and want to support it commercially. The first of these Sputnik laptops was a joke with the 1366x768 display. This one, however, looks ideal and is priced competitively with similar machines.

At work, I've purchased and configured four ThinkPad X1 Carbon's for various people. One of these was a dual-boot Ubuntu install. It worked fine, but the trackpad was a little funny, and there's no support for this configuration from Lenovo.

Doing a price comparison between the Ubuntu Dell and an X1 Carbon, the Dell comes out to $1602 CAD with a three year warranty, the X1 Carbon is $2028 CAD. The X1 Carbon has a 1600x900 screen comapred to the Dell's 1920x1080. And I don't have to wipe Windows and fiddle with Linux. And I'm showing a major company that I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is with an Ubuntu laptop that isn't low-end garbage.

Lee Hutchinson / Lee is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars and is responsible for the product news and reviews section. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX.